Property investment firm Queensgate Investments is to acquire the Generator Hostels chain from Patron Capital and its co-investment partner, Invesco Real Estate, for approximately €450 million. Generator Hostels comprises 12 operational freehold properties and a further two under development (8,639 beds) in London, other European cities and Miami in the USA. Queensgate now plans to invest more than €300 million in expanding the Generator business. The deal is expected to close in May.

Hilton Worldwide has signed a management agreement with Compagnie de Phalsbourg for its second Hilton Hotels & Resorts-branded hotel in central Paris: the 118-room Hilton Paris Eiffel Tower, which will be housed across two adjacent buildings in the city’s 7th arrondissement. The group currently has six hotels overall in operation across the French capital. Additionally, Hilton has signed a franchise agreement with NAOS for a further three hotels in France. The deal will see Hilton and NAOS launch the midscale Hilton Garden Inn and Hampton by Hilton chains in France with a 164-room hotel in Bordeaux and a 156-room hotel in Clichy, respectively, and a €23.5 million project in central Paris will result in the conversion of a row of 19th-century three-storey townhouses into a Curio – A Collection by Hilton property (52 rooms); construction started in early 2016 on this hotel and it is due to open later this year.

Carlson Rezidor has signed an agreement for a new hotel in Poland. The new-build, 230-room Radisson Blu Hotel, Sopot is scheduled to open in the Baltic Sea resort of Sopot, in northern Poland, in the first quarter of 2019. Rezidor currently operates 13 properties across the country. "With an average GDP growth of 3.6 percent in 2015 and the rise of domestic tourism, Poland is an important economic player in Europe," comment Elie Younes, HVS alumnus and executive vice president and chief development officer for The Rezidor Hotel Group.

NH Hotel Group is to open its sixth NH Collection hotel in Germany. The 416-room NH Collection Frankfurt Messe is scheduled to open at the beginning of 2021 as part of a 120-metre-high skyscraper at the heart of Frankfurt’s business district, close to the Messe Frankfurt exhibition venue. The four-star hotel will be the second NH Collection-branded hotel in the central German city, on the River Main. The Spanish group currently operates 67 NH Collection hotels worldwide and has ten hotels in the pipeline due to open before 2021.

French group AccorHotels is planning to open two new Mercure properties in the UK: the 44-room Mercure Thame Lambert in the Oxfordshire town of Watlington, which is the result of a franchise agreement with the Estee Group, and the 61-room Mercure Hunton Park Watford M25, around 17 miles northwest of London, which will operate under a franchise agreement with SR Hotels. The two existing properties will undergo major renovations over the next few months and reopen as Mercure hotels later this year.

Leonardo Hotels has opened its second European NYX hotel in Prague, Czech Republic. The 91-room NYX Prague is housed in an historic building in the city centre. The latest property to open under the NYX flag joins sister properties the 299-room NYX Milan, in Italy, and the 190-room NYX Tel Aviv, in Israel.

AccorHotels' design-oriented lifestyle brand Mama Shelter is planning to open its seventh property in Prague, Czech Republic. The 238-room Mama Shelter Prague is due to open in the fourth quarter of 2017. The ten-storey hotel will be the result of a conversion of the former Parkhotel, close to Stromovka Park (the city’s largest park), which dates back to the 13th century. The group currently operates 677 rooms across six cities and three countries.

Hand Picked Hotels has purchased the Grade-II listed Stanbrook Abbey Hotel in the UK county of Worcester for an undisclosed sum from Clarenco. Dating from the early 16th century and previously home to Benedictine nuns, the abbey is set in a walled 26-acre estate and has 56 guest rooms

Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts has signed a management agreement with Yobek Electrical Enterprise for its first hotel in Ethiopia, in the Horn of Africa. The 252-room Mövenpick Hotel Addis Ababa is currently under construction in the country’s capital and due to open in 2019.

InterContinental Hotels Group’s (IHG) Holiday Inn brand is due to make its debut in Qatar with the soft launch of the Holiday Inn Doha – The Business Park in May, which will be followed by a grand opening at the end of the year. The six-storey, 307-room hotel has been developed in the centre of the Qatari capital’s financial district, close to the Crowne Plaza Doha - The Business Park. The opening will bring IHG’s portfolio in the country up to five hotels.

AccorHotels – Announced the full redemption of its US$290 million preferred stock investment in Playa Hotels & Resorts.

Disclaimer: Information provided above has been gathered from various market sources. HVS has not independently verified the accuracy of the information provided. Interested parties should not rely on the information as statement of facts and are advised to make their own independent checks to verify the information provided. For further information, please feel free to contact HVS London.

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